Amanda Tapping facts for kids

Quick facts for kids Amanda Tapping
Amanda Tapping at Phoenix Comicon, 2013
Born	(1965-08-28) 28 August 1965 (age 59) Rochford, Essex, England
Nationality	Canadian/British
Education	North Toronto Collegiate Institute University of Windsor
Occupation	Actress, director
Years active	1986–present
Spouse(s)	Alan Kovacs
Children	1

Amanda Tapping (born August 28, 1965) is a talented British-Canadian actress and director. She is most famous for playing Samantha Carter in the popular science fiction TV shows Stargate SG-1, Stargate Atlantis, and Stargate Universe. She also starred as Helen Magnus in the fantasy series Sanctuary.

Early Life

Amanda Tapping was born in Rochford, Essex, England. When she was three years old, her family moved to Ontario, Canada. She went to North Toronto Collegiate Institute, where she was very good at science and drama. After finishing school in 1984, she decided to focus on drama. She then studied acting at the University of Windsor in Windsor, Ontario.

Career

Amanda Tapping at Comic Con 2007 in San Diego

After college, Amanda kept studying acting and performed in many plays. She also appeared in TV commercials and played different roles in TV shows and movies. Some of these included The Outer Limits and The X-Files. In the early 1990s, she even started a comedy group called "Random Acts" with her friends Katherine Jackson and Anne Marie Kerr in Toronto.

Amanda Tapping is best known for her role as Samantha Carter in the science fiction TV series Stargate SG-1, which started in 1997. After SG-1 ended, she continued playing Samantha Carter in Stargate Atlantis. In this show, her character became the new leader of the Atlantis team. Later, Amanda decided to spend more time on a new show for Syfy called Sanctuary. This show was based on eight short online videos released in 2007. Much of the show's backgrounds and characters were created using green screen and CGI (computer-generated images). Amanda was both the star and a main producer of Sanctuary.

In 2007, she won a Canadian Comedy Award for Best Actress for her work in a short film called Breakdown.

On September 18, 2012, she was cast as an angel named Naomi in season 8 of the TV series Supernatural. She appeared in seven episodes. She played the role again in season 13, almost five years after her character seemed to have died.

In 2015, she was also named ACTRA's Woman of the Year.

Directing

Amanda Tapping first directed an episode during the seventh season of Stargate SG-1. The episode was called "Resurrection" and was written by her co-star Michael Shanks. She also directed an episode of Sanctuary called "Veritas." She has directed episodes for many other TV shows, including Primeval: New World, Continuum, Olympus, Dark Matter, Van Helsing, The Magicians, and Supernatural. She also directed for the historical drama X Company. She directed five episodes of the Netflix series Travelers and the final episode of the 2017 series Anne with an E. In 2022, Amanda also directed two episodes of the TV show Motherland: Fort Salem.

Personal Life

Amanda Tapping is married to Alan Kovacs. They live in Vancouver, British Columbia, and have one daughter together. Amanda has two living brothers, Richard and Christopher.

Filmography

Film

Television

Director

Theatre

Amanda Tapping has also performed in many plays, including:

• The Wizard of Oz
• The Lion in Winter as Alais Capet
• Steel Magnolias
• Look Back in Anger as Alison (1986)
• Children of a Lesser God as Sarah (1987)
• The Taming of the Shrew as Bianca (1988)
• Noises Off
• The Shadow Walkers

Awards and Nominations

Amanda Tapping has won 6 awards and been nominated 13 times for her acting and directing work.

See Also

In Spanish: Amanda Tapping para niños